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Friday, September 14, 2007

Not by virtue of its artistic credentials, but in it telling us of man's eternal struggle to understand the intricacies of nature;

of the narrow mindedness of men in attempting to belittle every new idea, every man who treads on a new road, and embarks on a new journey....

"Flammarion", in mockery at the world that burnt Galileo, poisoned Socrates, and still fed on their ideas....

If that statement puzzles you, here is a footnote explainin the pic...

The Flammarion Woodcut is an enigmatic woodcut by an unknown artist. It is referred to as the Flammarion Woodcut because its first documented appearance is in page 163 of Camille Flammarion's L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire (Paris, 1888), a work on meteorology for a general audience. The woodcut depicts a man peering through the Earth's atmosphere as if it were a curtain to look at the inner workings of the universe.The caption translates to "A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven [the sense here is 'sky'] and Earth meet..."